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Donald Trump has again been accused of “brazen crypto corruption” after financial disclosures revealed his family’s cryptocurrency ventures generated more than $1bn in his first year back in the White House.
A 927-page disclosure, released on Tuesday by the US Office of Government Ethics, showed that the US president had earned more than $2.2bn last year in total, from real estate, golf resorts, branded merchandise, licensing deals and court settlements.
But a set of extraordinary crypto takings stood out: World Liberty Financial, a joint venture between the Trump family and that of Trump’s Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, brought in more than $500m from sales of “governance tokens”, while another firm, CIC Digital LLC, generated more than $600m from Trump-branded meme coins, launched days before his second inauguration.
Elizabeth Warren, the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee, said the figures showed why US Congress needed to act.
“The crypto legislation heading to the Senate floor must prevent the President, Vice President, senior administration officials, members of Congress, and their families from profiting off the crypto industry,” said Warren. “If it does not, it will only turbocharge Donald Trump’s brazen crypto corruption.”
Juliana Stratton, the Illinois lieutenant governor and a Democratic Senate candidate, wrote on social media that Trump’s “infinite greed is disgusting”, adding: “Donald Trump uses the office of the president to make billions while American families struggle to afford their basic needs.”
Gavin Newsom, California’s governor, said the disclosures “showed exactly” how Trump played his crypto cards, noting that many investors had lost out. “He got richer,” said Newsom. “His crypto supporters got rug-pulled.”
Asked about the disclosures on Wednesday, Trump waved off the scrutiny. “I made a lot of money before I became president,” he told reporters. The White House has long maintained his businesses are walled off from his official duties, run by his adult sons, and did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In his second term, the president and his family have invested heavily in digital money and crypto businesses, with Trump announcing at the start of last year that he wanted the US to be the “crypto capital of the world”.
Trump also made millions last year from selling Trump-branded Bibles, trainers and other small items, in another unprecedented move for the presidency. In the Trump-branded watches category alone, the president earned $4.7m.
The rise of crypto relative to Trump’s property is especially noteworthy given the president racked up tens of millions from fees and licensing deals in a flurry of new hotel, resort and condo deals overseas. Many of those countries were negotiating with the US over tariffs, military aid and other important matters.
A property in the United Arab Emirates took in $10.4m; one in Saudi Arabia being built by a real estate developer close to the ruling family sent the president’s company $9m; and one in Bucharest, Romania, and another in Qatar each sent Trump $5m.
The disclosure report also detailed payments of more than $86m to the president from five separate legal settlements with media and social media companies including ABC, CBS, YouTube, Meta and X.
The latest disclosures add to a string of controversies over the Trump family’s crypto dealings. In June, the Ultimate Fighting Championship said it would pay fighter bonuses in USD1, a stablecoin issued by World Liberty Financial, at a mixed martial arts event staged on the White House’s South Lawn for the president’s birthday. (World Liberty was an official sponsor of the event.)
Congressional Democrats want a fuller reckoning. Warren’s staff reported last week that officials linked to the United Arab Emirates invested roughly $500m in World Liberty Financial, after which the administration took at least 10 actions benefiting the UAE, including on AI chip exports – an arrangement Warren has called a potential “pay-to-play” scheme.
She and four other senators wrote to Senate committees on 23 June demanding hearings into the deal, under which associates of an Abu Dhabi royal bought a 49% stake in World Liberty Financial for roughly half a billion dollars four days before Trump’s inauguration. Separately, Adam Schiff, a US senator, is leading an inquiry into the crypto exchange Binance over reports it evaded US sanctions on Iran, citing Binance’s ties to World Liberty Financial.
Not every effort to curb the US president’s crypto dealings has succeeded. An amendment barring the president, vice-president and Congress members and their families from owning or promoting crypto businesses was voted down by the US Senate banking committee along party lines, even as the underlying Clarity Act advanced.
The scrutiny landed just before Trump took his first flight onboard the new Air Force One, a Boeing 747 gifted to the US by Qatar, en route to North Dakota for the dedication of the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, which he called the “best plane ever built”.
